Maybe They are Really Dogs

Happy New Year!  It is 10:30  in the morning and B, me and Hallie just woke up.  We were all snuggled in bed sleeping like, some would say babies, but I, of course would say, like dogs.  Lil Joe and My G are still asleep.  Could it be that the family is really a family of dogs and not really a family of humans?  Nah! They would be really ugly dogs if they were dogs.

Anyway, I’m wishing everyone evrywhere a year filled with peace, happiness, food and walks.  Can you believe that in only 20 more days, there can very well be a new dog in the White House.  Go Obama – the girls and dogs everywhere  are counting on you.

Dogs For Peace

Hallie has been leaving the radio on a lot these past few weeks. I prefer to listen to NPR. Of course it’s not like I have a lot of choice as to what I listen to since I can’t reach the radio. It’s hard to believe that a few weeks ago it was the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War. My whole life has been lived in a state of war. It’s also hard to believe that 4,000 American soldiers have died in this senseless war, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians that have also perished.

So dogs don’t really use their “words” when they talk. Instead we growl, bark, push and sometimes even bite humans to let them know what we want. I’m the first to admit that this is not the best form of communication. One would think that humans would know better that violence does not really solve world issues. Instead collaboration, mediation and just plain old talking would probably work better. If a dog can understand this, why can’t the humans and stop this increasingly tragic War?

When Hallie and I took that dog training class everything was about positive reinforcement. I know that in the olden days, before my time, the way that dogs were trained was by force, yelling and intimidation. The trainers found that either method of training worked, but the positive reinforcement, with lots of treats, was more humane for both the dogs and the humans. Isn’t there a lesson for our world leaders to learn from this?